Student band INDIGO from Nijmegen hasn’t been able to perform for months owing to the corona crisis. But still the foursome will be presenting their new EP Meet Me At Dusk in Doornroosje in January. ‘We’ve become more accessible. It doesn’t have to be so difficult.’

If you combine music from The National, Balthazar and the Editors, and sprinkle it with some Nijmegen flavour, you get indie-band INDIGO; it was founded by singer Mart Megens (23), lead guitarist Frank de Groot (22), drummer Dion Triepels (22) and bass player Loris Cornelissen (27).

‘We’re more alternative than the average pop band’, Megens says. ‘And that is intentional. We know you can never please everyone, so we don’t try to.’

Despite this, the student band has already become fairly successful. In 2018 they performed in small bar in Limburg, but a year later they won popular band competition Roos van Nijmegen. They also performed at the Valkhof Festival and celebrated the release of their first EP in a sold-out Merleyn. But then corona happened.

The entire cultural sector was on its back. At first this didn’t seem like such a bad problem; because of planned semesters abroad, the band was going to take it a break for a while anyway. But because of the corona crisis those semesters abroad were cancelled, and the break was -by necessity- extended for months. That ‘temporary break’ has been going on for a year and a half now. ‘We were on the way up, and now we have to make a fresh start’, according to De Groot.

Musician’s Existence

INDIGO will begin that fresh start with the release of their new EP Meet Me At Dusk on January 15^th. The record was written in its entirety in a small vacation home in the Veluwe. ‘We could really focus on the new music there’, says Megens. ‘And also get a taste of the full-time musician’s life.’

For the moment that’s not an option – after all, studying also needs to happen. Three out of four members are still studying at Radboud University. Megens and De Groot are following the master’s course Communication Science, while Triepels is working on the pre-master on communication and influence (Du: communicatie en beïnvloeding). Meanwhile, former student Cornelissen has traded in the student life for a full-time job. ‘For the moment, the musician’s life is a bridge too far. But how wonderful would it be if we could do this for a living?’ Megens wonders, dreamily.

‘To get ahead, you have to be bold’

In any case, the band members are filled with confidence. ‘To get ahead, you have to be bold and take risks’, Triepels says. That is the reason why their release show is planned for the Paarse Zaal of Doornroosje, twice as large as Merleyn. ‘We think we can get the hall sold out, so why not give it a try?’

These risks and additional challenges make the musician’s life a lot more fun, according to De Groot. ‘Of course, we’re in it for ourselves. We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t like it.’ Megens says that they didn’t realise this before. ‘We were a lot more impatient a few years ago. We wanted to get a hit song and a quick breakthrough. Thanks to the required resting period we know now that good music takes time.’

Less Mysterious

In their own words, their music has become less mysterious and of a higher quality. ‘The new music is more accessible than our old work. It doesn’t have to be so difficult’, according to Megens. The band members go on to say that the new EP is also a lot more versatile. ‘At one moment you can drift off for a bit, and the next moment you’re rocking out’, De Groot says. It’s not for nothing that the EP is called Meet Me At Dusk. ‘The record matches the sunset, when the day turns to night, and anything can happen.’

The last part is also true for the band itself. The corona regulations mean that it’s uncertain whether the EP-release can continue as scheduled. ‘January 15^th is coming up fast, but we remain hopeful’, Cornelissen says. And their biggest dream? Performing at Down the Rabbit Hole, a festival at the Groene Heuvels in Ewijk. ‘That would be the perfect home game.’